Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada · Page 1

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Gazei $1.50 Maybe higher ouiside metro area. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1995 The Gazette -Journal is printed using recycled paper. "tt?-Ya , II dl RNAL Ruby Ridge hearings underscore FBI's internal turmoil ... i -.. Hi Senators frustrated: 'Weasel words' take center stage. 1 992 federal law enforcement fiasco known as Ruby Ridge, three things are clear to frustrated senators now grown accustomed to the remarkable sight of FBI agents invoking the Fifth Amendment. Someone is lying, big time. The fatal incident has ripped the FBI asunder internally. Ruby Ridge is giving the once-sacrosanct agency a huge, public black eye. Special agents in field offices accuse career-minded supervisors back in Washington of treating them like "tuna" to be fed "hungry sharks." Supervisors accuse field agents of gross incompetence and chicanery. Even the parent Justice Department is betng dragged into the swamp. Those agents or officials willing to testify are using obfusca-tions and weasel words reminiscent of the last time the bureau was in big trouble during Watergate. One former Justice pooh-bah testified Friday: "To the best of my recollection, I have no recollection." A former FBI deputy director told senators: "I now know that I do not know." Senators are particularly angry because: Each federal lawman takes the oath, admits things went terribly wrong then blames somebody else. Every description of internal FBI reviews shows friends investigating friends, subordinates probing bosses, and underlings asked to criticize those who can either promote or destroy them. For a closer look at the fatal fiasco, turn to page 1 0A. 1 I " now know that I do not know." Former FBI deputy director "To the best of my recollection, I have no recollection. " Ex-Justice Department official By John Hanchette GANNETT NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON After three weeks of hearings into the fatal S t J j9 In 1 V T 4. OTJUitlJU Mm is uu f 4ifl A love of flying brought Joe and Stevie Henderson back to Nevada. Then it tore them apart. 'Maybe we had too much good' David B. ParkerGazette-journai Undefeated season slips away for Pack . Six turnovers, like the interception above, were too much for Nevada, which Saturday posted its first loss of the season, 49-35, to Toledo in front a home crowdof25,112. 1-3D Marilyn NewtonGazette-Journal II -" Cosette c Reno: The Journal, in Corporate parent of 5 Reno-area nursing homes: Though feds call 3 local facilities 'substandard,' firm is hot on Wall Street. conjunction with the mm . i I1 I producers of "Les Miserables HorizonCMS Healthcare Corp. A quick look at one of the largest operators of nursing homes in the United States By Sevil Omer GAZETTE-JOURNAL A company that owns five nursing homes in northern Nevada is recommended by analysts as a top-notch stock but assailed by federal regulators for its poor quality of patient care. HorizonCMS Healthcare Corp., with headquar wants readers to pick the Truckee Meadows' look for the well-traveled young innocent. Check the choices shown on page 1C; then call 324-0225 and use code 6399 to cast your vote. More about the designs, 14C I . 1986 by Chairman Neal Elliot and Chief Financial Officer Klemett Belt, both certified public accountants. ters in Albuquerque, N.M., owns all three northern Nevada nursing homes that the Inspectors' report: Sparks nursing home faulted. 10A imnm Boston Texas Reno Las Vegas Casino career: Sparks business owner Bob Cashell is content with his low profile. 1 E Lisa J. ToldaGazette-Journal (top photo). "I've been asking God, 'Why wouldn't you wait a couple of weeks? What difference would a couple of weeks make?" OVERCOME: "I've told God I hated him," says Stevie Henderson (above), her husband's wedding ring hanging from her neck Reno Washoe Care Center Sparks Physicians' Hospital for Extended Care Hearthstone of Northern Nevada Fallon Fallon Convalescent Center Environment: Sierra ecosystem healthy despite strain, study finds. 1 B Minden crash: Death of 'pilot's pilot' leaves widow with memories, tears. government considers substandard. "I don't object to people making a profit, but we need to establish that the quality of service be acceptable," said state Assemblywoman Vivian Freeman, D-Reno. Horizon came under fire after federal regulators found three of its nursing homes, two in Sparks and one in Fallon, substandard in care or failing in tougher standards that the government began enforcing in July. The three facilities: Physicians' Hospital for Extended Care in Sparks was considered poor in care. Hearthstone of Northern Nevada in Sparks did not substantially comply with the tougher standards. Fallon Convalescent Care in Fallon also did not substantially comply with the tougher standards. Sharon Ezell, chief of the state Health Division's bureau of licensure and certification, said the nursing homes were told of the violations and will be given another chance to comply before a second, surprise inspection within 70 days of the first visits. If the nursing See UNDER on page 1 0A Carson Sierra Convalescent IZacjjfte e1 35 long-term rehabiKja.tigjf are centers hospitals'" otallinal 8,000 bec HIGH LOW 8042 The company prdkide sub-acute care thrbufl speciality hospitals an 7 sub-acute care units. r.-ffa-S. - L,.JL.., Today: sunny "Tonight: clear. Mondayfmostly- sunny. 14A Special to the Gazette-Journal 1 991 : Joseph M. Henderson Jr. retired as one of the Air Force's most celebrated pilots. $2 billion Source: HonzonCMS Healthcare Corp. Gabriel MorbnQazette-Journal B Update: Crash leaves Minden-based aircraft firm in legal limbo. 6A By Jim Namiotka GAZETTE-JOURNAL Soon after her Las Vegas .wedding in May 1975, Stevie Henderson's husband told her: "I'll probably die in an airplane. That's what I do." Twenty years later, Joseph M. Henderson Jr., who retired as one of the Air Force's most celebrated pilots, was killed when his experimental jet crashed into a sagebrush-blanketed field near Genoa. It was the second fatal crash in eight months for Minden-based Peregrine Flight International. Nearly two months after the crash, Stevie Henderson looks at Joe's wedding band, which she keeps on a necklace. She recalls 20 years of passionate marriage, a journey that began at Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base and crossed the country TV Week Color comics USA Weekend several times before the cou- Siena Style 1-14C Music 4-5C Reading 7C Arts 8C Bay Break 10C Travel 12-13C Sports 1-flD Business 1-6E Voices 1F Classified 3F-14G Big Medicare, Medicaid changes loom under GOP pies final move to Douglas News Briefing Weather The Day RenoSparks Lottery Opinion Obituaries 1-14A 2A 14A 14A 1-8B 2B 4-5B 7B her faith and, finally, her tears. "I believe that on August 4 at 9:30, Joe was going to die regardless of what he was doing. He would rather have died that way," she said. "I know Joe's happier where he is now, but I still feel sorry for me." BBI Joe Henderson, president and CEO of Peregrine Flight International and Fox Aircraft Corp., had taken the experi- See CRASH on page 6A County in 1994. "In my mind, I remember saying that we started and we would end in Nevada," Stevie said. Since the crash, Stevie's only companions have been her memories, her bitterness. U0901"01102 Mass grave unearthed in northwestern Bosnia WASHINGTON (AP) In a few short days, the Republican Congress plans to perform major reconstructive surgery on Medicare and Medicaid, the twin pillars of government health care for 70 million Americans. The programs are likely to emerge leaner, more expensive for patients in some respects, closer to private health insurance and, Republicans insist, in better shape to survive into the next century. The House Commerce Committee already has put its stamp of approval on the GOP plan to turn Medicaid over to the states and cut its growth by more than half. On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will start work on its overhaul; the House Ways and Means Committee takes up its task Wednesday. Before the week is out, the moves to squeeze $450 billion in savings over seven years will be one step closer to law. For a more detailed look at what could be in store, turn to page 8A. The elderly: The $46.10 monthly premium for Medicare Part B, which covers doctor bills and lab tests, would roughly double by 2002 to more than $90. It would rise to $60 under current law and $82 under a White House plan. The young: The Medicaid overhaul would throw out the current requirement that states cover all poor children up to age 11, and, by 2002, all poor children up to 18. The middle-aged: The Senate plan would require everyone bom since 1938 to wait at least two months longer to qualify for Medicar.3. The eligibility age, now 65, would eventually rise to 67. Doctors: The Senate plan would scrap a formula experts say has been too generous to surgeons. Payments to physicians would still climb 7.5 percent a year. Hospitals: The annual fee hikes for hospitals would be shaved by 2.5 percentage points in 1996 and 2 percentage points each year from 1997 through 2002. I Balkans war: Clinton credits Bosnian peace progress to aggressive U.S. policy. 3A which would give the Serbs nearly half of Bosnia. Talks are scheduled in New York on Tuesday. Recent offensives by government and Croat forces have stripped large chunks of territory from the Serb rebels, and some Bosnians wonder whether they should try to vanquish the Serbs and avenge atrocities rather than end the war. Aid workers reported Serbs on Friday drove 480 Muslims from the town of Doboj, a key road and rail junction in northern Bosnia that is under increasing attack from the SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) A mass grave filled with 540 bodies was unearthed in northwestern Bosnia after government forces recaptured the area from rebel Serbs, Bosnia's prime minister said Saturday. It was unclear whose bodies were in the grave, but they were believed to be Muslims and Croats killed by Bosnian Serbs, said Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic. The discovery coincided with word of the latest ethnic expulsion by Bosnian Serbs: the driving of almost 500 Muslims from another tense in recent months as sharp battlefield shifts have sent Muslims, Croats and Serbs alike fleeing for safety. Mass graves are "a grim reality that we will be facing while liberating Bosnia-Herzegovina," Silajdzic told The Associated Press. He said experts were examining the bodies found in Krasulje, near a major road junction abqut 90 miles northwest of Sarajevo. Serb atrocities are a dhief concern for the Muslim-led government as it decides whether it is paying too heavy a price for a U.S. peace plan, Serb-held town under government attack. Expulsions have picked up across Bosnia as a peace deal that would separate ethnic groups grows more likely. Violence against civilians has been one of the hallmarks of the four years of war in the Balkans, but tales of horror have grown more in government arrm f -CM .!